SOILING. 187 



large number of absorbents. It being an annual, it must 

 be cut before the head forms, if proposed to cut more than 

 once, and it will then spring up again at once for a second 

 crop. Some German authorities say that it may be cut at 

 short intervals during the first summer, and then mature a 

 crop of seed the next season. Great care should be taken 

 to cut it in its young and succulent state, so as to keep it in 

 vigor. If the crop is good, and the land sufficiently moist, 

 it may be cut every three or four weeks. But the difficulty 

 is to get a sufficiently thick growth to pay well for cutting 

 before the head is formed, so as to prevent a good second 

 growth. And therefore it is mostly cut but once, and for 

 this purpose it is left till headed out, but before blossom. 

 It will then be 4 to 5K feet high, and yield the largest 

 crop. In this case, the land is used for a second soiling 

 crop, usually corn or millet. 



Rye should be sown early for soiling say the latter part 

 of August, or early in September, for the Middle and New 

 England States, and for the Southern States it may be 

 sown as late as November. It is better sown with a drill, 

 at the rate of two bushels per acre. If it grows vigorously 

 in fall, feed it off if the land is dry, or cut it high with a 

 machine, so that it will not smother under snow. The 

 proportion of dry organic matter in green rye is about 25 

 per cent., which is more than in clover, but its albuminoids 

 are in less proportion than in clover or peas. And although 

 we have found cattle to do well upon rye alone for a few 

 weeks, yet it is better to give some more nitrogenous food 

 with it, such as clover, oil-cake, wheat middlings, oat-meal, 

 etc. Rye is ready to cut before clover ; and small quanti- 

 ties of these- other foods may be given with rye till clover 

 is ready to be cut and fed with it. Rye and clover com- 

 bined, make a most excellent ration for steers or cows. 

 Medium clover is ready to cut, in latitude 38 to 41, 

 about the 10th to the 25th of May, and is but a short time 



